Thinking of Starting a Company? 5 Tips

Upsize LogoConsidering a startup?  Here are five tips from an article I wrote for Upsize magazine.  Check out the magazine’s website for the full copy… in short:

  1. Spend cautiously
  2. Sell
  3. Hire strategically which means working hard
  4. Work hard (second time!)
  5. Focus on making $$$
standardJuly 28Tom SalonekSmall Business

6 New(er) Drivers of Growth

6-Drivers-for-GrowthThere was an interesting article on Inc.com titled “Up Next: The Greatest Era of Entrepreneurship and Small Business The World Has Ever Seen“.  It points out six trends that will drive growth and entrepreneurship:

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  1. Micro-entrepreneurs.  If you’ve sold on eBay, Craigslist, or Etsy, used Uber or Airbnb, or used a service like TaskRabbit, you’ve experienced micro-entrepreneurship.  Some estimates state there are as many as 15 million micro-entrepreneurs
  2. 3D printing:   3D printing redefines what it means to be a manufacturer.  The article shares the story of a teen who made a prosthetic arm for a few hundred dollars (vs. $50K)
  3. Crowdfunding.  To date sites like Kickstarter, have raised $3,000,000,000+. With crowd funding, capital is available to all.
  4. Free failure:  Between micro-entrepreneurship platforms, crowd funding, and free or inexpensive hosting and cloud-based platforms, the cost to try is almost zero.
  5. Boomers:  By 2030, there will be 70M people over 65 and a lot of them will keep working.
  6. Internet for all:  Today, 2B have access.  In 10 years, most of the world will have access.  That’s 5B more connected customers and companies.

 

standardMay 14Tom SalonekIT

Lessons on Learning

School-EnglandIn a recent article in The Economist, my favorite magazine (minus any that report on realty TV ;-)., has a great article entitled “A very British business: Some lessons from the success of Britain’s elite private schools.” The article notes three areas where business could learn a lesson from (essentially) K-12 schools in Britian:

  1. “The first is that ‘tradition’ and ‘innovation’ need not be mutually exclusive.”  In short, you can be in a business and still have enough vision to innovate/re-envision the business.
  2. “Performance measurement isn’t something performers are scared of. “I had a call today with a former long-term client.  His son is looking at attending a boot camp.  I shared to ask for scores and placement rates at program completion.
  3. “…insiders can make the best revolutionaries.” In the article, it shares that effective transformers can come from inside a business.  I agree.

 

 

standardApril 30Tom SalonekHappy Employees

Small Business State of the State

Small-BizThe state of small business, in my opinion, is pretty fascinating.  Here are some stats from a Business Insider infographic:

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  • The U.S. government defines small business as less than 500 employees and 50% of workers work for small businesses
  • 65% of new jobs since ’95 are in small businesses
  • Only 7 out of 10 new employers last two years, half last five years, a third make it 10 years, and only one out of four makes it 15 years
standardApril 28Tom SalonekSmall Business